In April 1881, James Smith, aged 59, was a naval pensioner living at Hill End.

James was born at Broadclyst, Devon, in about 1822, the son of James and Ann. His father was a shoemaker.

In 1851, James married Mary Bartlett at Plymouth. She was the daughter of Robert and Sarah Bartlett of Hardington.

In April 1861, James and Mary lived at 13 Chapel Street, East Stonehouse, and James was a sailor.

By April 1871, James had retired from the navy, and he and Mary lived at Revelstoke, a village about eleven miles east of Plymouth.

By April 1881, they had moved to Hardington and lived with Mary’s sister, Elizabeth Cox.  Her husband, Thomas Gill Cox, had died in 1878.

Mary died at Hardington on 1 November 1887, aged 67. Tragically, she left her home during a gale, and the following day, two labourers found her drowned body in the river near Bridge Close Farm.[1]

The censuses of 1891 and 1901 show  James staying at a boarding house in Revelstoke. He died in 1908, aged 87.

References

[1] Western Gazette, 4 November 1887, p.8.